A Halt In Correspondence
by HistoryIsImmortal
Summary: Post season 3 AU, some alterations (explanations inside). Some ten years have passed. Elena and Jeremy are celebrating, but - as always - unpleasant tidings cannot wait. Two-parter.
1. Chapter 1

_Authors note: Takes place post season 3, but with some alterations. Everything went according to the plan – the Original siblings left Mystic Falls with Alaric on their trail. Klaus is desiccated and in their possession. Elena remained a human, peacefully living out her life._

_I actually wrote this story somewhere in February, I think. Just some things happened along the way that have kept me away from writing (or in this case, revising). I would like to express my sincerest thanks to Pied Flycatcher, who helped me make this story better than it was in the first place and also gave me several pointers I hope not to forget. Thank you!_

* * *

**A Halt in Correspondence**

**1**

Jeremy felt the corners of his mouth actually aching a bit. He hadn't laughed so much for a long time and even now, clearing up the dishes, he couldn't stop smiling like an idiot.

It had been a while since he'd seen his sister so they had tons of catching up to do. The past few hours had passed in a whoosh, sitting in the small living room of Elena's apartment in Atlanta, dining while they recounted the events of their busy lives.

Jeremy set the small pile of dishes next to the sink and turned to the refrigerator to retrieve a bottle of wine. He noticed the colorful postcard stuck onto the silvery door with a magnet, raising an eyebrow at it. Who sent postcards these days?

Curious, he dragged the magnet off the corner of the card and picked it up, examining the picture of what was apparently Edinburgh Castle. He turned the card over and was surprised to see elegant handwriting filling the back from top to bottom.

_Elena,_

_As you might have guessed by the picture, my research has brought me to Scotland, but same could be said about personal preference. I'm quite glad to be back in Great Britain after a nearly half-a-century long absence. The weather has been cold, windy and somewhat rainy or, in other words – just as you predicted concerning the northern climate – very much to my taste. _

_Professor Harlow, an old acquaintance of mine from the University of Edinburgh, managed to coax me into going on a hunting trip in the Highlands (with rifles – there's nothing more distasteful than chasing majestic beasts with bare hands), which, I must admit, was quite a refreshing change after weeks spent going through dusty archive pages. I've forgotten the beauty of secluded glens and, as strange as it may sound, the thrill of a hunt. Now that the summer is coming to an end and the university is welling up with students once again, I will be moving on as well. _

_I was delighted to learn that your hard work is paying off and that you are on the fast track on the career ladder. I still feel the need to remind you not to forget to 'live a little'. That's one of these things you might otherwise regret later in life. I highly recommend visiting Scotland, for example, or the UK in general. I'm sure you'd love it here. _

_As per usual, I cannot tell you where I'm going, but you know how to reach me._

_Elijah._

Elijah? Jeremy thought with some confusion. Why would Elijah write to his sister?

Now, years after _that_ particularly hectic period in his life, it all seemed like some old, forgotten myth that sounded hardly plausible to begin with.

Life hadn't been easy on him and Elena after Alaric's death (Jeremy refused to acknowledge his evil vampire version, presumably lurking around somewhere out there), but somehow they had managed to pick up the mangled pieces and fit them back together again.

After the Salvatore brothers left at Elena's plea and Caroline and Tyler scattered to the wind, their lives had slowly turned back to normal. Of course Elena had been devastated at first – letting go of two guys she had loved and also two of her very good friends all at the same time had been heartbreaking, but they both knew it was for the best. The Salvatore's would have only destroyed each other if they had stayed and Caroline and Tyler couldn't exactly continue living their lives in Mystic Falls after being exposed to the council.

So in time Elena and Jeremy both left for collage, graduated, got jobs and the supernatural became nothing more but a faded memory.

But now, for an instant, it all flooded back to the surface of Jeremy's mind – the alleged curse of the sun and the moon, Klaus and the sacrifice that had stolen his aunt away from him and had almost ended with Elena's death (well, technically, it had). He recalled Elijah being very much eager to send his sister to the slaughter, all to fulfill some ancient revenge scheme, and his fists clenched instinctively at the thought.

Then he thought about the day Klaus died and the anger evaporated as quickly as it had emerged. Because in the end… in the end he had saved her. Elijah's deal had given their lives back to them and Jeremy felt so very thankful for that.

"Jeremy?"

He flinched. Someone had just called his name and it sure as hell wasn't Elena. The very next moment he flinched again when he realized a man was standing right beside him, hands folded behind his back as he regarded him with a resigned look.

For a moment he could only stare. "Elijah, is it?" he said after he'd composed himself, bending to pick up the postcard he'd dropped.

Elijah smiled gracefully, nodding, and a sense of relief reflected in his black eyes.

"Are-are you looking for Elena?" Jeremy asked. "Because she's in the living room."

Normally he would have been more than a little alarmed upon seeing a vampire in the middle of the kitchen, but considering the amicable words he'd read behind the postcard and the fact that he had been obviously invited into his sister's apartment, he figured there was no reason to worry.

"Actually I was looking for you," Elijah said.

Jeremy's brow rose. "Me?"

"Yes," he confirmed, smiling slightly, and Jeremy noted there was a strange look on Elijah's face as if there was something obvious he was missing. And it was made even more peculiar by the fact that despite the barely-there smirk, Elijah looked kind of sad. "I would like you to pass on a message to Elena."

"Pass on?" He felt stupid. "But she's in the next room…?"

The truth hit him like a bucketful of cold water. He hadn't seen someone like that in a very long time.

"You're… dead?" he asked with complete astonishment.

"Yes," he replied calmly. "Will you tell her for me?"

"I-I suppose," Jeremy wondered for an instant how close the two of them had been, hoping such news wouldn't leave his sister devastated yet again. He hated seeing her like that.

Elijah gave him a thankful nod, his eyes shining warmly for once. "Tell her I received her letter and I'm glad to hear everything is turning out the way she had wanted. Tell her…" He stopped and Jeremy got the feeling he wanted to say something he wouldn't have wanted to be passed on by somebody else, something personal. "Tell Elena I'm happy for her," he continued after a brief pause, "and that I enjoyed our correspondence."

"I will," Jeremy promised a little breathlessly. It never got easier or less troubling talking to the deceased. "But…" he couldn't help the words coming out of his mouth, "…but _how?_ Did he-" He just couldn't say 'Alaric'. It wasn't Alaric. Not anymore.

Elijah looked away, that oddly resigned smile still in place. "It doesn't matter. Tell her not to worry about me."

Then he was gone.

* * *

Jeremy wandered back into the living room, feeling as if he was in a dream. His heart clenched when he saw his sister humming happily to herself while she cut the cake he had brought to celebrate her promotion at work into generous slices.

She must have noticed him at the doorway. "Great, you got the wine," she remarked without turning around. "I think the corkscrew is in the sideboard drawer."

Jeremy walked across the room and set the bottle on the coffee table with a soft thump, making Elena look up at him. He wished he could have postponed the truth, but it wasn't really their thing. After everything that had happened they had learned the importance of honesty and he wasn't going to back down on it now.

Elena took in his slightly paled face and glum expression. "What happened? Is something wrong?"

"I saw someone," Jeremy said. "A ghost."

"What?" Elena's eyes grew wide and fear snuck into her features. Seeing ghosts was never good news. "Who did you see?"

"Elijah."

"No," was the first word she uttered. Like an automatic reflex. "_Elijah?_ How could you have seen him?"

"I was reading the postcard on the fridge, the postcard he sent you," Jeremy explained, "and then, out of the blue, he appeared. I can only guess he'd been waiting for me to notice him."

Elena sank into the couch, a disbelieving look on her face, rubbing her forehead absent-mindedly. "It can't be…"

Jeremy sat down next to her, leaning closer.

"You never talked about him," he said, trying to shed some light on the whole thing. He wanted to make sense of this so he would know how to console his sister. "I- Well, I thought he left for good that night he came to the house to make that deal."

"He did," Elena muttered and he thought he saw tears glistening in her eyes. She laughed shortly and to no purpose, wiping her eyes that threatened to overflow. "We just sent letters, it was nothing, really," she said, trying to sound nonchalant when she was so obviously upset.

Jeremy wrapped one arm around her shoulders and she leaned her head against his.

"I'm sorry," he murmured.

* * *

Elena didn't know why the news of Elijah's death had affected her so strongly. They hadn't even seen each other for nearly ten years, simply trading letters with inconsistent intervals, just exchanging bits and pieces of their lives, discussing ideas, beliefs, principles and other stuff like that.

_It was nothing._

Anyway, that's what Elena kept telling herself as she prepared for bed. Jeremy had said a concerned "good night" to her when she'd announced she was suddenly very tired. She'd felt bad for leaving him to pack up the untouched cake and worry about her, but she'd been afraid she might break down if she didn't lie down at that instant.

Everything was alright. It didn't affect her life, not really. But if so, then why was she feeling that hollow emptiness in the pit of her stomach?

Then, the next instant, Elena was confused and angry. She sat onto her bed, hugging her pillow so tightly, it made her arms hurt, but she hardly noticed the dull pain.

How could this have happened? Elijah had told her in one of his letters that he had managed to disarm Alaric and had gotten rid of the one stake that could kill them. So how could he be dead?

Elena had asked Jeremy to try and contact him again after he'd repeated to her word for word what Elijah had said, but her brother had explained that he wouldn't show up again. That he was gone.

A moment later she was filled with some weird sense of guilt. Maybe their correspondence had made it possible for Alaric to track him down? She sent all her letters to one and the same mailbox in Vermont, after all. She had no idea how they reached him from there.

Elena crawled into her bed and pulled the covers over her head. She didn't want to think about this anymore, but she couldn't seem to be able to stop.

She peeked out from under the blankets at the dark ceiling above her. Elijah had always seemed so eternal. Even though she hadn't really seen him, his letters had become one of the highlights of her everyday life. She hadn't even noticed how much she'd started to depend on his opinions and how whenever she had a big decision to make, she'd always ask him for advice, waiting patiently for his answer to arrive. Elena was an emotional person in general, so reading Elijah's delightfully rational and well-exemplified replies made the process of decision making that much easier for her.

But it wasn't just that. It was so much more. She enjoyed reading his short but illustrative descriptions of his travels – the places he'd visited, jobs he'd taken, people he'd met. They were rays of excitement in her otherwise gray workdays, something to look forward to. Sometimes she felt almost as if she was partially living through him since her demanding job deprived her of the opportunity to go travelling herself.

Now she'd never receive another envelope from him again… And it felt like a small, strangely private part of her life had collapsed.

Elena folded the covers back to her waist and rested her hands on the soft fabric, staring at the gloomy ceiling. "Are you here?" she asked, surprising even herself. She must have sounded mad talking to an empty bedroom.

She lifted her head up a bit, scanning the darkness, hoping against everything that through some miracle he'd appear, all calm and collected like he always was, laughing even at the very thought of him perishing from this world.

"If you are here," Elena went on. "I just wanted to say…" She sighed. "I'm gonna miss you." She let her head drop back on the pillow and her eyes drift shut, feeling the tiniest bit better.

Had Elena indeed been able to see ghosts, she would have probably noticed the man sitting on her wide window seat, observing her inner turmoil and listening to her midnight confessions.

He didn't stay for long, though. He just wanted to say good-bye now that she knew, even when she'd never hear it. Actually, he'd become quite used to being dead. It had been, after all, four months already. The only thing that had bothered him was the thought that she'd hope to find his reply every time she walked to her mailbox and wonder why it wouldn't arrive. Because that was true hell – not knowing. The truth, as they'd tell you, would only set you free. Even if it wasn't the entire truth.

Elijah was dead, but not without a chance of resurrection. Only Alaric Saltzman was in the possession of his body with the handle of an all-too-familiar dagger sticking out of his chest, not to mention even Elijah had no idea where he had hidden it. All he did know was that there was a very slim chance of finding it as long as Alaric was alive. And because his life was tied to Elena's, he would only die when she did.

So consequently in her world he was, for all intents and purposes, dead.


	2. Chapter 2

**A Halt in Correspondence**

**2**

For a longest time it felt as if all Elijah heard was the monotone sigh of the sea: waves coming in and pulling away, coming in and pulling away, over and over again. He wanted to open his eyes, but he couldn't. He was too weak…

Then there was the sun – he assumed it was the sun – that came and went, lingering on his face, warm and bright, making the world behind his eyelids a red blur.

Slowly he became more aware of his surroundings. The grainy ground beneath him, the breeze that stoked his hair. Until he was finally strong enough to open his eyes.

Elijah found himself on an empty beach. He lay on the sand, just out of the reach of the incoming waves, clad in an extremely tattered suit and apparently missing a silver dagger jammed into his chest.

He propped himself up on his elbows and let his gaze travel over the deserted strip of beach. He had about thousand questions swarming in his head and that was an incentive enough to pull himself up.

Weak and disconcerted, Elijah decided his best option was to impose as an unwanted houseguest in the nearest private residence until he was well enough to face this brand new world.

The first thing he asked for was the date. He had been dead for the last 22 years.

In the following months he uncovered as much information as he could, learning about everything that had taken place in both human and the supernatural world during his involuntary absence.

The latter had fallen into some anarchy since all who had once governed it had vanished starting with Klaus, then Elijah, and even the feared hunter.

Alaric Saltzman had allegedly died not two years after daggering him. The news of his end evoked mixed feelings in Elijah. There was the obvious relief but there was also sadness for what Saltzman's decease implied.

He needed to investigate.

Murder, plain and simple, explained an old newspaper article he found at the library on a bleak Monday morning. Elena Gilbert had been found dead in her apartment read the small entry in the upper right corner of the crime section.

Elijah sat in the warm glow of the old-fashioned green desk lamps that brightened up the otherwise gray room, staring at the paper in his hand, dumbfounded.

After hearing of the hunter's demise, he had expected this; he had prepared himself for news of her death, but a tiny part of him had still hoped that maybe it wasn't true, however minimal the chances.

But fate had a habit of reminding Elijah that miracles were named miracles for a reason.

The few other articles he found indicated that the case was never solved, which basically meant that either someone had a personal vendetta against Elena and managed to be crafty about it or… vampires. He guessed someone had found out about her life being tied to a hunter whose sole purpose in the world was to end the entire vampire race.

Elijah pondered how unfair it was for one person to have been forever haunted by the shadow of death, being constantly punished for the sins of her ancestors, and how he wished he could have saved her.

During the first year after his awakening, while in pursuit of his siblings, Elijah found himself back in the small town of Mystic Falls. He visited all the old yet familiar places – the Grill, the Town Hall, the Lockwood mansion. It had been over 30 years since his last visitation, so there was virtually no one around to recognize him. With one exception, perhaps…

Elijah couldn't really explain why he decided to stop by the Gilbert residence. Did he long to see a familiar face or stir up memories of times passed? Did he expect Jeremy to refute the article of his sister's death?

However, he was surprised when the door was swung open by a young girl, maybe fifteen or sixteen years old. He noted she had the Gilbert's dark hair and brown eyes when she stopped at the door, holding a phone to her ear as she was in the middle of a call.

She gave him a quick once-over and announced that her father was on a business trip and he should come back next week, then submerged back into her conversation on the phone about the upcoming dance at the school.

Then the door clicked shut, leaving Elijah standing on the porch. Before he left he took a moment to look at the neighborhood. He made mental note of all the ways it was different and how quickly the world changed.

His last stopping point was the cemetery. Elijah walked amidst rows of moss-grown gravestones, the fallen leaves rustling under his feet, and came to a halt before a small cluster of headstones: Grayson and Miranda Gilbert, Jenna Sommers, John Gilbert and the last, most recent addition – Elena Gilbert. 29 years old at the time of her death.

Elijah stood before the small patch of grass, staring at the spot that was her last resting place. About six feet underground she lay in a casket and he wondered whether she had finally found her peace. As his eyes lingered on the green blades of grass, reaching for the clear, cold autumn sky, he noticed all kinds of pains in his chest he didn't care to explain.

He crouched down and set his hand on the ground, feeling the thick rug of grass under his palm – old grass, not the frail, thin blades that would grow on a fresh grave.

He left Mystic Falls, telling himself that this was indeed the last time he'd wipe its dust from his feet. He wouldn't come back again. And even though it wasn't the first time he'd thought so, this time he honestly believed it.

* * *

For a long time it was strange being, so to speak, back to life. Elijah had never been daggered for so long. He had left behind a world he could understand completely, a world where he had been in control as much as one could be when chased by a vengeful history teacher. In that world he'd kept his brother and sister at arm's length, he'd had plans and commitments and even a few friends, but after waking up from nearly a quarter-of-a-century-long sleep everything had changed.

It was as if he'd lost everything all over again.

Rebekah and Kol had seemingly vanished into thin air and Elijah could only assume that the hunter had daggered them as well and, being aware of his inevitable death and the fact that he would probably never find another weapon that could destroy their kind, dumped his siblings' bodies into the sea. So similarly to his own fate, he couldn't do much else but simply wait for the tide to carry their remains to the shore, presuming it ever did, and hope that someone would pull out the dagger to free them once again.

Until then, there was little he could do about it. But despite the hopelessness of his endeavor, Elijah was not ready to give up. He would do it all again, willingly – turn the world upside down to find a way to get them back. Because they were all he had, the very reason of his existence, and he needed them.

They made him feel more alive, more human. And the only other person aside from his siblings who had managed to draw forth that sensation in him had been Elena Gilbert, who was now dead.

It was odd how much he missed their habit of exchanging letters regarding the latest events of their lives and discussing miscellaneous subjects. Hearing about her mundane everyday life made him feel somehow more normal, down to earth. In fact one of the very last memories he had before being killed was of reading the last letter Elena had sent him. It had included a photograph snapped at a carnival she had visited with her brother after earning a promotion at work. Elijah found it strange and saddening to think that the brightly smiling Elena standing there in the glow of a long string of lanterns hanging over her head had passed away nearly 20 years ago.

After wandering the world alone for nearly a decade without achieving much, he decided something had to change. And drastically. He had exhausted all rational options, so he finally decided to launch the one major turnaround that was in his power. He decided to wake up Niklaus.

Since Elena had died childless, he was violating no agreements, and however crazy or impulsive his brother might have been, he was also smart, which could turn out to be helpful. Furthermore, he was _yet again_ the only sibling Elijah had left and he was tired of doing everything alone.

He needed his brother, even when he was still far from neither forgiving nor forgetting his past misdeeds.

For five hours he stood motionless next to Klaus's open coffin in a long-forsaken crypt in Toulouse he had hidden his body in, fighting with himself. Elijah knew well that once Niklaus was revived, it would take an army to put him down again, if need be. So when he eventually poured the much-needed blood into his brother's mouth, he half-prayed that his judgment would be right.

* * *

Now, as 13 years had passed since the day Elijah had woken up on an empty beach, he was doing a lot better than on that exceedingly unpleasant morning. He was sitting at a small table on a vast balcony of some expensive hotel restaurant with the instigator of this little rendezvous – Klaus and, he could still barely believe it, the long lost Miss Caroline Forbes.

Elijah found it quite incredible how much his brother had changed in the span of merely a few years. After awakening he had been the very embodiment of fury – mad at Elijah, Rebekah, Kol, the entire population of Mystic Falls and, well, possibly the whole world. But as he learned of Elena's untimely death, moreover without a successor to produce another doppelganger, he realized that he'd never be able to create another hybrid and through that he apparently decided that he had no other option but to mend his relations with his family and those he considered potential friends.

Caroline had been his first find and therefore his first 'victim'.

Although Elijah wasn't naïve enough to think Klaus a 'changed man', suddenly at the side of all good, he was relieved that his ever-obsessive desires were now employed in a manner that didn't include murder or torture or, god forbid, another sacrifice.

It was a bright, sunshiny day on which one could hardly expect to do much else but sit under a shade, drink cool beverages and, in Elijah's case, ignore the looks that deemed him insane for being dressed in a black business suit while most people were in t-shirts and shorts or swimwear.

Elijah watched how the waves licked the long strip of sand as he sipped his scotch on rocks and listened to Klaus and Caroline chattering, trying and occasionally succeeding in luring him into their conversation. But mostly he watched the beach and his companions in silence, not able to stop himself from smiling. For some reason he found subtle humor in their appearances.

Caroline looked so young and innocent in her pale blue, flowing summer dress and rather comical with the huge white-rimmed sunglasses and that ridiculously colorful cocktail she was whisking around whenever she explained a point she was especially passionate about.

And it seemed that Klaus had not restrained his vain personality in the least bit today. He looked quite sharp in his light, bone-white suit and fedora, though somewhat as if he'd stepped out of a 1920's-set gangster movie. His appearance may have been of a leisurely gentleman but the grin he wore was positively wolfish.

So judging by the fact that Caroline, unwittingly cast in the role of the Little Red Riding Hood, looked so utterly at ease, Elijah could conclude that maybe, just maybe, his brother wasn't completely delusional. Or, then again, maybe Caroline just didn't care enough anymore to fear him. Elijah knew the feeling a little too well. Loneliness and time had a way of changing people.

"Brother," Klaus said in a sweet drawl, then turned to Caroline. "Darling," he addressed her, satisfied by the annoyed look she shot him. "I must confess, I summoned you here today for a reason." His grin widened even more, if possible. "I have a little surprise in store for you."

"Oh, boy," Caroline sighed, somewhere between amusement and irritation.

Elijah only straightened his posture and turned to face his companions more directly, waiting patiently for the ball to drop.

Klaus glanced at his wristwatch and then around the buzzing balcony, past table after table of prattling tourists and waiters dashing about, trays balanced on their arms.

"Any minute now," he assured them, his eyes bright with excitement.

Caroline raised a skeptical eyebrow at Klaus and leaned closer to Elijah to whisper, "The last time he tried to surprise someone we had to compel a dozen people not to be declared wanted in the state of California."

Elijah chuckled softly at the story. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Well, I'm here," a defiant voice announced from behind them. "Care to explain _how the hell_ you're alive?"

"My brother got bored," Klaus replied casually, "fickle old fellow, isn't he?"

Elijah heard Caroline gasp loudly just a split second before his gaze reached the woman standing before them with a very determined scowl on her face. She was a bit older than he remembered her, but there could be no doubt as to who she was, looking rather fierce in the rich sunlight. Elena Gilbert.

Suddenly her eyes flickered to Caroline and then Elijah and he could have sworn she must have sprained her jaw with the way her mouth dropped open.

"Surprise," Klaus said in a bored, yet mocking tone, enjoying the expression of pure, unadulterated gladness on Caroline's face as she rushed to her old friend, pulling her into a bone-crushing embrace.

"I thought- I thought you were dead!" she uttered between sobs, cradling Elena in her arms as if she'd never let her go again.

"I thought _you_ were dead," Elena said, breaking into a sincere laughter, instantly free of that cold fury she'd displayed a moment ago. "I searched for you for years."

"I'm so sorry, Elena," Caroline explained frantically, tears trailing down her cheeks while her mouth curved into a huge smile, "Tyler and I… we got into trouble. With the council and, uhh, it seems with everyone else. I didn't want to bring you into it, but now it's all over."

It was obvious that the two women had a mountain of things to discuss, but as Caroline's hold finally loosened and she backed slightly away from her oldest friend, Elena's eyes moved to Elijah and for the time being her reunion with Caroline was put on hold.

A warm, though oddly shy smile lit up her face as Elena took a step towards another lost friend of hers. Elijah stood up, ready to extend his hand to her when suddenly the distance between them vanished and Elena wrapped her arms around him so tightly, he was surprised by the force of it.

"You were dead, too," she mumbled, delight mixed with an ounce of sadness. "My god, you're all like three ghosts standing here. Please tell me you won't disappear again," she said, so happy she even forgot to exclude Klaus.

"I wouldn't dream of it," Elijah replied, releasing Elena from the embrace with an amused smile.

"So… how…?" Caroline stuttered, looking from Elena to Klaus, seemingly at loss for words.

"Don't ask me," Klaus laughed, holding his hands up. "I just heard from an acquaintance of mine of a doppelganger lurking around and imagine my surprise when it I discovered it wasn't our _lovely_ Katerina. So I thought I'd track her down and arrange a little meeting."

Elena burst into laughter, making everyone look at her. "Can you believe it?" she asked them, "Because I sure as hell find it hard to believe that _Klaus-_" there was a note of disdain to her voice as he said his name, "- is the one to unite us all again."

Caroline joined her in laughing and Klaus and Elijah exchanged looks. It _was_ hard to believe. There was no question in it.

The freshly convened foursome spent the rest of that exceptionally beautiful summer afternoon sitting on the vast balcony of an expensive hotel restaurant, recounting the rather incredible chain of events that had brought them all together after some 45 years, enjoying the weather and stiff drinks (which were much needed to avoid certain topics, at least for the day) without a care in the world. And for one evening and one evening only, all of their sins were forgotten, because surely tomorrow would be gray and sober again and then they'd have all the time in the world to revive each old crime, try and convict. Just, it wasn't today.

* * *

"Will you write to me?" Elena asked him with those honest eyes of hers boring into his. "I scribbled down my current address," she added after a short pause, handing him a slip of paper.

They were down at the beach, taking a slow stroll with sand crunching softly beneath their feet. Klaus and Caroline had relocated inside to the hotel bar, caught up in yet another heated discussion about this or that. They seemed to be locked into a never-ending dispute.

Elijah stopped, gazing briefly at the horizon. The sun had set but the sky in the west was still a mishmash of red and orange, fading into pink, then purple and finally blue that shifted from very light, almost white to deep dark navy, studded with stars.

He felt Elena coming to a stop beside him and spun around to look at her.

"To be quite frank, I'd rather not," Elijah confessed, watching how Elena's face turned from hopeful to dejected. She had so miserably interpreted what he was trying to say. It made him smile just the tiniest bit, which in turn made her look puzzled. "Ever since this… shall we say halt in correspondence? Well, I've realized that a correspondence is not really enough for me."

A small smile spread over her face. "What do you suggest, then?"

"I was thinking that the next conversations, whatever they may be about, we should have face-to-face."

"I'd like that," Elena nodded.

They kept walking along the waterfront in silence, watching the waves come in. There were so many questions floating around in Elijah's head, but he didn't feel like this was the moment to ask them. After all, they had all the time in the world.

Instead he thought of fate and what a funny thing it could be – it can take four decades, two deaths and a few miraculous 'resurrections' to realize what you really want, what you've been missing out on all along and, moreover, convince yourself that you just might succeed in getting it. Maybe it was time to take his own advice and 'live a little', because with eternity at one's disposal, even foolish hearts can learn.

* * *

_So it came out sort of a bittersweet, nostalgic and really ironic story. I wanted to write something where the main characters fail to save each other and just give up and about how sometimes other, unconnected acts can work in unexpected ways. Plus I could totally see Elena and Elijah being all polite and respectful and missing their chance because they don't know how to change anything. _

_I don't know if this worked, but I suppose it's for you to know and me to dot dot dot…_


End file.
